American Slavery

American Slavery a machine-readable transcription R. J. Weir Elizabeth Lorang Kristen Treen transcription and encoding Kristen Treen R. J. Weir Elizabeth Lorang aa.18630912.4 cwnewspaperpoetry Scholarly Editing: The Annual of the Association for Documentary Editing

http://www.scholarlyediting.org

Association for Documentary Editing University of Nebraska–Lincoln Center for Digital Research in the Humanities

319 Love Library University of Nebraska–Lincoln Lincoln, NE 68588-4100 http://cdrh.unl.edu

2012

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/). Derivatives must be credited to R. J. Weir and Elizabeth Lorang, made available non-commercially, and distributed under the same terms.

Scholarly Editing: The Annual of the Association for Documentary Editing editor Amanda Gailey editor Andrew Jewell 34 2167-1257 B. T. J. American Slavery The Anglo-African 12 September 1863 [4] The microfilm copy used for transcription was loaned by Northwestern University. <imprint> <date sameAs="#issue_date"/> </imprint> </monogr> </biblStruct> </sourceDesc> </fileDesc> <encodingDesc> <p>This electronic text is a semi-diplomatic transcription of the source text. Hyphenation, punctuation, variant spellings, and errors present in the source text have been retained. The transcription does not attempt to capture all aspects of the original formatting or layout.</p> </encodingDesc> <profileDesc> <creation> <persName xml:id="btj">Unknown</persName> <persName xml:id="rh">Hamilton, Robert</persName> <persName xml:id="th">Hamilton, Thomas</persName> <date when="1863">1863</date> </creation> <langUsage> <language ident="en-US">modern American English</language> </langUsage> <textClass> <classCode scheme="http://authorities.loc.gov"> <term>Antislavery movements--United States</term> <term>Antislavery movements--United States--History--19th century</term> <term>Slavery--United States--History--19th century</term> <term>Slavery--United States--Public opinion--History--19th century</term> <term>United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Religious aspects</term> </classCode> </textClass> </profileDesc> <revisionDesc> <change when="2013-03-02" who="#el">made copyediting changes</change> <change when="2013-01" who="#el">revised transcription and encoding to address errors and inconsistencies; updated editorial notes</change> <change when="2012-11" who="#awj">added Scholarly Editing info to TEI header</change> <change when="2012-10-14" who="#el">encoded; added and encoded editorial notes</change> <change when="2012-10-01" who="#kt">variants noted</change> <change when="2012-09-30" who="#el">checked</change> <change when="2012-09-03" who="#el">created</change> </revisionDesc> </teiHeader> <facsimile corresp="#issue"> <surface xml:id="pp1"> <graphic url="aa.18630912.pp1.jpg"/> </surface> <surface xml:id="pp2"> <graphic url="aa.18630912.pp2.jpg"/> </surface> <surface xml:id="pp3"> <graphic url="aa.18630912.pp3.jpg"/> </surface> <surface xml:id="pp4"> <graphic url="aa.18630912.pp4.jpg"/> <zone xml:id="pp4_cropped" corresp="#poem"> <graphic url="aa.18630912.pp4_cropped.jpg"/> </zone> </surface> </facsimile> <text corresp="#poem #pp4_cropped"> <body> <lg type="poem"> <head type="main" subtype="authorial" rend="center">AMERICAN SLAVERY.</head> <milestone unit="undeclared" rend="short-bar"/> <head type="sub" subtype="authorial" rend="center">DEDICATED TO UNION MEN.<note type="editorial" resp="#bw #el">The dedication situates the poem as a loyal Republican response to Peace Democrats (represented here as disunion men, or traitors). In a letter published in the <title level="j">New York Times on September 5, 1863, prominent Peace Democrat and US representative from New York Fernando Wood wrote, "I believe that the Union has not been and cannot be severed beyond restoration, unless it may be by a continuance for another Presidential term of the policy of the last two years. There has been no period within one year in which the Union could not have been restored, provided those in authority in the Executive and Legislative Departments of the Government had desired it. It can yet be restored, but in my opinion only by conciliatory measures and other equally constitutional methods" ("A Note from Hon. Fernando Wood"). Wipe out the blot! Wipe out the spot!Figured as both stain and disease, slavery compromised the American Republic's ideals, and endangered the Republic itself. B. T. J.'s metaphors were well established. In 1854, Lincoln argued that slavery was "hid away, in the constitution, just as an afflicted man hides away a wen or a cancer, which he dares not cut out at once, lest he bleed to death; with the promise, nevertheless, that the cutting may begin at the end of a given time" (Abraham Lincoln: His Speeches and Writings, ed. Roy P. Basler [1946; New York: Da Capo, 2001], 313). "Our republican robe is soiled, and trailed in the dust," he told his audience moments later (315). Liberator editor William Lloyd Garrison used the same analogy in the same year: "Some men still are talking of preventing the spread of the cancer, but leaving it just where it is" (No Compromise with Slavery [New York: American Anti-Slavery Society, 1854], 27). Jehovah's sword is flaming high! Wipe out the blot! Cut out the rot! In its own venom let it die! It is the scorpion girt by fire; Self-kindled are the flames that spread; In its own ire let it expire,Scorpions were rumored to sting themselves to death when surrounded by fire. Lord Byron used the tale as the basis for his famous metaphor in "The Giaour" (1813): "The Mind, that broods o'er guilty woes, / Is like the Scorpion girt by fire" (Lord Byron, Selected Poems, ed. Susan J. Wolfson and Peter J. Manning [New York: Penguin, 1996], ll. 422–23). B. T. J. echoes Byron's phrasing but transforms the simile: American slavery will destroy itself. Its own sting rankling in its head! Wipe out the spot! Wipe out the blot! The parricidal, horrid thing! For him be not a freeman's lot Who'd back to life the monster bring. On to the long predestined end— The march of time is moving now! As sweeps the surge events converge To rend the vailveil from Freedom's brow. Wipe out the spot! Wipe out the blot! The only stain our banner shows; O! who has not bewailed the lot That heaped on us the bondman's throes! We stand for all our country's laws; But now that they have rent the chain,B. T. J. argues that, as law-abiding, God-fearing patriots, "Union men" must lend abolition their support. The strong regular rhythm of these lines complements the reasoned argument they contain; together, form and content suggest that rational thought and moderation distinguish Union men from lawless rioters and radical abolitionists, known as fanatical adherents to "higher law." Who backward draws from Freedom's cause Let him not rank with men again! The worm that eats the root is found; The surgeon's knife is at the sore; Shall health abound? The tree grow sound? Or, conscious, wither as before? It is for life! and ours the tale To sound to ages yet to come. Shall fiends prevail? Shall Heaven fail? The answer leaps e'en from the dumb. The cancer dries the vital flow While one polluting root remains; And even so no healthful glow Can spread, where Slav'ry clogs the veins. Behold the curse! Its desp'rate bands Are shaking now the sacred base, Where Freedom stands with clenchéd hands And sinews strained to save her race. Let no man fear! Our Eagle yet Will cleave the clouds and ride the wind, Tho' Slav'ry fret, its star be set— His flight shall leave that night behind! Still brighter smiles shall dress the soil Where sugar, rice and cotton grow, And freeman's toil shall know no foil, Though black or white his color show. Wipe out the blot! Wipe out the spot! Jehovah's sword is flaming high! Wipe out the blot! Cut out the rot! In its own venom let it die! New York, August 22, 1863.The New York dateline places the poem's declaration of patriotic allegiance against the backdrop of the New York City Draft Riots (July 13–16, 1863). In the aftermath of the riots, which saw mobs attack African American New Yorkers and destroy their property, Peace Democrat politicians like Fernando Wood and New York governor Horatio Seymour were blamed for inciting the violence. B. T. J.Unidentified. —Evening Post.

The New York Evening Post, founded by Alexander Hamilton in 1801. William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878) began to write for the title in 1826, having struggled to make a living as a poet; by 1830 he was the Post's editor-in-chief, and the daily's financial prospects looked good (Allan Nevins, The Evening Post: A Century of Journalism [New York: Russell and Russell, 1968], 134-136). Committed to Free Soil principles, Bryant severed the Post's connection with the Democratic Party in response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) and backed the fledgling Republican Party in 1856. He threw his weight behind Lincoln's presidential campaign in 1860. Although the Post remained staunchly Republican throughout the war, Bryant did not shrink from criticizing Lincoln's policies. The Post "shared with the Tribune the advocacy of what came to be called the 'radical' Republican doctrines during the Civil War—namely, emancipation, the need of strong and swift military measures, and the removal of pro-slavery and Democratic leaders from the government and army" (Frank Luther Mott, American Journalism: A History of Newspapers in the United States Through Twenty Years, 1690–1940 [New York: Macmillan, 1941], 5:344).

Despite crediting the Post, the Anglo-African may have reprinted this piece from the National Anti-Slavery Standard, which featured the poem in its issue of September 5, 1863. The poems are identical in both printings, including their attribution to the New York Evening Post.